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15th September 2017

Objective 6.1 – Configure and Administer vCenter Appliance Backup/Restore

Moving on to Section 6 – Back up and Recover a vSphere Deployment, starting with Objective 6.1 – Configure and Administer vCenter Appliance Backup/Restore.

As always this article is linked to from the main VCP6.5-DCV Blueprint.

Happy Revision

Simon

Objective 6.1 – Configure and Administer vCenter Appliance Backup/Restore

Configure vCSA File-based Backup and Restore

The vCenter Server Appliance supports a file-based backup and restore mechanism that helps you to recover your environment after failures.

In vSphere 6.5, you can use the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface to create a file-based backup of the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller appliance. After you create the backup, you can restore it by using the GUI installer of the appliance.

You use the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface to perform a file-based backup of the vCenter Server core configuration, inventory, and historical data of your choice. The backed-up data is streamed over FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP to a remote system. The backup is not stored on the vCenter Server Appliance.

You can perform a file-based restore only for a vCenter Server Appliance that you have previously backed up by using the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface. You can perform such restore operation by using the GUI installer of the vCenter Server Appliance. The process consists of deploying a new vCenter Server Appliance and copying the data from the file-based backup to the new appliance.

You can also perform a restore operation by deploying a new vCenter Server Appliance and using the vCenter Server Appliance management interface to copy the data from the file-based backup to the new appliance.

You can use the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface to back up the vCenter Server instance. You can select whether to include historical data, such as stats, events, and tasks, in the backup file.

You must have an FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP server up and running with sufficient disk space to store the backup.

Dedicate a separate folder on your server for each file-based backup.

  • In a Web browser, go to the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, https://appliance-IP-address-or-FQDN:5480.
  • Log in as root.
  • In the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, click Summary.
  • Click Backup.

The Backup Appliance wizard opens.

  • Enter the backup protocol and location details.

Backup protocol

Select the protocol to use to connect to your backup server. You can select FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP.

For FTP, FTPS, HTTP, or HTTPS the path is relative to the home directory configured for the service. For SCP, the path is absolute to the remote systems root directory.

Backup location

Enter the server address and backup folder in which to store the backup files.

Port

Enter the default or custom port of the backup server.

User name

Enter a user name of a user with write privileges on the backup server.

Password

Enter the password of the user with write privileges on the backup server.

  • Select Encrypt Backup Data to encrypt your backup file and enter a password for the encryption.

If you select to encrypt the backup data, you must use the encryption password for the restore procedure.

  • Click Next.
  • On the Select parts to backup page, review the data that is backed up by default.
  • Select Stats, Events, and Tasks to back up additional historical data from the database.
  • In the Description text box, enter a description of the backup and click Next.
  • On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the backup and click Finish.

The Backup Progress window opens and indicates the progress of the backup operation.

  • After the backup process finishes, click OK to close the Backup Progress window.

Define supported backup targets

Supported backup targets are those that can support the following protocols.

FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS or SCP.

For FTP, FTPS, HTTP, or HTTPS the path is relative to the home directory configured for the service. For SCP, the path is absolute to the remote systems root directory.